Indigo Skies
by KindHeartedWriter
Summary: Post Ep. 167 I've forgotten my name, but I know what I am: A half-demon, half human half Nekomata. For some reason, demons and some humans have confused me for Kirara, a demon slayer's Nekomata. I haven't met either one, but I've heard about them. On the run from demons searching for me, I've ended up alone, never trusting anyone. I'm always alone, and I can't be anymore. ShippoxOC
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

My skinny body couldn't run fast enough.

The demons were right behind me and I tried to hurry, my paws skidding on the slippery leaves that littered the foggy swamp as I ran from them. I was frightened to think that they would try to use me.

"Run," my mother had then said my name, but since it had happened so long ago, I had forgotten my name. She had then stroked my fur with a hairless hand, a hand that I longed for even now, when I should be concentrating on running from the demons.

Her blue eyes had been very dark. "Don't let them catch you and find out that they are wrong." Then she had started sobbing.

I mewled in confusion, snuggling close to her. She looked down at me and sobbed harder and I could almost hear the unspoken plea in my mind. She wished to understand what I could say. And sometimes, she could. But now it was too late.

I was a half-demon. A cross between a Nekomata and a human. My mother was the human, and my father was a full-bred Nekomata. He had fallen for my mother, and she had told me that even my father was a half-demon himself. He changed into his human form every waning moon, and one of those moons, they had been together. When I was born as human with bright blue eyes, my mother and father were joyful, hoping that I wouldn't turn into a Nekomata. Then, on a waxing moon, I had changed while my mother was out fetching water and my father was fetching firewood. I had been asleep with one of the villagers who had watched me.

The villager had said that I hadn't awoken at all during the transformation. When my mother and father had come back to see that I was a Nekomata, my father was perplexed. He told my mother, who was upset because she had believed that I was human, that I was probably half-demon somehow, and that her family must have had a demon ancestor. My mother had shaken her head, but my father had persisted that this could have been the only reason that I could change into a Nekomata like I was a full demon.

From then on, I was a full Nekomata demon. Every waning, waxing, full and new moon, I would change into my human form. But otherwise, I was my 'true' self, as my father had said, every day. The transformations sometimes varied. Some happened in the morning of one of the certain moon phases and lasted until the next morning, and some started at sunset or midnight to last 'til dawn.

My mother had taken those few opportunities to talk to me while she could, because when I was a Nekomata, she couldn't understand me.

My father only could when I was a Nekomata or not, because he was half-demon, and was also in his Nekomata form most of the time.

The rare days when my father and I was both human, my mother would spend all the time she could with the both of us.

Over time though, my mother aged. We _all_ aged, but my father and I would live much longer than my mother because we were half-demons. When my mother was nearly elderly, my father took great care in spending more time with her.

Only my mother's closest friends knew about us. Most of the entire village thought my mother was odd because she always had two Nekomata demons with her. They always asked her why she kept us around, and to them, she said that we chased rats away, though I did once. One villager, probably having seen my father when he was a human slip into my mother's hut, asked about a strange young man he'd see around the same time every night. My mother insisted that the man was her nephew, though it was my father.

Sometimes the villagers complained about how we looked, considering other Nekomatas weren't so different from us.

My father didn't follow the traditional pattern of Nekomatas; he had deep silver markings and the same reddish orange eyes, while I had the normal black markings but bright blue eyes.

My mother was elderly when my father began teaching me how to defend myself. When he was human, and I was my normal self, he had taken me to the village river and showed me show to catch fish. He thought that when he was a human, I was more alert in our lessons.

After I had reached ten human years old, -my father and I aged physically like humans but we lived longer much lifespans. My father stopped physically aging after he had reached thirty two human years. He was really several hundred years old - I began to worry about my mother. Her health had started to fail, and she was constantly sick.

So she wasn't prepared, no one was, when demons had attacked the village. My father had changed into his bigger form of his Nekomata, his 'battle form' my mother told me, and went to help the demon slayers in our village fight the demons off. I had been in my Nekomata form, and though I was ten and sometimes human, I had my demon instincts.

A two-headed demon with a purple human body, except for his belly, had burst into our hut and reached for my mother with long purple arms. I bit onto the one of the fingers, and the demon screamed. He threw me against the wall and I lay winded when I saw him grabbing for my mother again. He held a wooden spear in his hand-

He had demanded for something. He asked for a girl, with a particular name-

I nearly stopped when I felt water under my paws. I panted when I glanced behind me and ran off for drier land when I saw that the demons were still behind. I was so close to being free from them.

I looked up at the dark sky and saw that the waning moon was almost directly in the sky. I fiercely hoped that tonight would be the one night I wouldn't change. I had been looking for shelter in a tree to sleep in once I changed into my human form. Once I had found one with branches forming a wide V, I had started looking around for bushes with berries that I could take with me in the tree.

Then I had walked around the wrong tree onto a trail where a man was being eaten by the demons that were chasing me now.

"It's the demon slayer's, Kirara!" One of them had shouted. The demon was similar to the one that had grabbed at my mother and had nearly killed her. "She might know where the sacred jewel is."

It was hard for me to keep my eyes open as I ran. I was exhausted. Being a Nekomata nearly all of my life, and after the attack on my village, I wasn't eating as well as I should have. When I turned into my human form, it hadn't been easy to switch my diet. The only thing both of my forms could stomach was fish, but fish wasn't filling.

Berries were tolerable too, but why eat berries when there's a river next to you, my father had asked when he saw me nibbling on blueberries one night on a waning moon. We both had been human that night, and that was the night my father had told me to start waking up early so he could train me to be a full Nekomata.

My mother would be on the sidelines to help me become a full human whenever I changed-

"Forget her." The demon farthest behind me barked to the one closer to me. I could hear their heavy pants from where I stand, my paws halfway sunk into mud. "We've been chasing her for hours. You're the fastest one, Midoka, but even you seem tired."

Midoka had green paint coloring his body except his belly. He turned to the one speaking. "Fadiku, we're so close." He pointed to me. "Kirara is right there."

I shake as I wait for their next move. I backed away a step and shook harder as I waited.

Fadiku rolled his eyes and turned to the one I had no name for yet. "Come on. We have her scent."

I watched in confusion as they turned around and headed off into the dark trees. The fog swallows them up.

I whirled back around, feeling giddy. They hadn't caught me. My mother and father would have been so proud-

I stopped the thought before I thought about it too much, and padded off into the fog. The transformation has been going on for a while now, but is in full force because I can feel my senses dulling. My claws begin to shrink and dull as I walk.

When I can barely see the fog dissipating, I hurry into one of the bushes. My fur has fused into my skin and I wait as night shrouds around me. I touched the top of my head to find my ears gone and long hair in its place. The weightlessness of my hair stuns me every time I touch it, and I stifled a gasp when I run my fingers through the silk.

I huddled in the bush, hoping that no part of me can be seen.

The realization that I've ran for a long time makes itself known in the aching of my human body as my forms begin to reassign themselves. Now I am fully human, and I know this by peering down at my chest. My teats have gone bigger.

Being in my human form makes me feel very vulnerable. I closed my eyes as hunger gnawed my belly, and begin to beg for morning to come.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

I crawled out of the bush, looking down at my creamy fur. I sighed as I stretch, missing my human form but being glad it's gone at the same time. I licked my paws and drew one over my ear. I gazed at the swamp and shook my head at the thought of washing in it.

I padded off into the trees, not looking back at the spot where I could have been killed. I still have no idea what the demons had wanted from me.

I walked for hours, sniffing the air occasionally to make sure that I wasn't being followed. I walk with my head hung, missing my mother most of all.

The demon had killed her by shoving his spear through her stomach. In agony, that was when she had told me to run. It was the last time I had talked to her, and see my father. I liked to think that he is still looking for me.

I think I pulled a muscle in my back right paw because it slowly begins to ache. By the time I wanted to rest, it was throbbing so fiercely that if I were in my human form there'd be tears in my eyes.

I stopped by a stream to lap up water. I dipped a paw in the cool water, then plunge right in because my fur is hot and muddy. I pushed my head in and shake it about, getting water in my ears. I shook my head once I pulled it out, and rolled in the water for a brief few moments. My aching paw and leg begin to feel better as I wade in the water.

"Is that Kirara?" I jerked my head up. There are villagers nearby dipping empty buckets and basins in the water. One was across the stream and pointed at me. She turned to her friend who had dark brown hair. "Is that Sango's Kirara?"

The dark-haired woman shook her head. "Kirara and Kohaku just got back last night."

The villagers near them stared at me and I nearly trembled, the cold water turning to ice in my fur.

One male villager walked up from behind me. He grabbed on my tails and I bit my lip to keep from scratching him. He picked me up in his arms and I closed my eyes.

"Whoever's she is, she's not being fed." The man grumbled. "She's very light."

"Let me take her." He handed me to the dark-haired woman's friend. I bristled at being touched by unfamiliar hands.

"Sango!" The dark-haired woman began to walk off, calling a name that isn't familiar either. I tried to scramble from the woman's grip but she clutches me tighter in her hands.

A woman with darker brown hair and brown eyes stepped out of a wooden hut. She peered around, and then sees the woman calling her. "Amu, I'm right here!" She shouted.

Amu turned around. "Sango, where's Kirara?"

A Nekomata stepped around Sango's ankles and mewed. I looked down at her, and then struggled harder. I began to try keeping my claws in, not wanting to scratch the woman's hands but wanting to be put down.

"She's right here." Sango looked down at Kirara, then at Amu. "Why do you ask?"

"Another Nekomata is here." Amu explained. The villagers at the stream watched the exchange and turned away when an elderly woman walked from the shore and toward Sango. Sango bended down to hear what the woman was saying, who begins pointing at me.

I growled and the woman holding me gasped and released me. I took off running, hoping that the other Nekomata Kirara wasn't following me. I had been so dumb! Thickheaded! Naïve! Why hadn't I looked to see whether the stream wasn't being used by anyone?

I scampered off from the stream and village as far as I could. Now that I was more alert, I could see that somehow I had strolled right into a village and expected not to be noticed. The bright afternoon sun must have dulled my senses. I had been chased so much in the past few weeks that I was exhausted and the thought of water was so tantalizing that I had surged to the occupied stream without a second thought.

Air whooshed behind me.

"Gotcha!" I looked up to see a clawed hand reaching down for me; the figure's features are blocked by the sun. I growled when the hand clamped around one of my tails. I arched my back and reached up to claw at the hand with unsheathed claws. I continued to growl loudly, realizing that a demon has me trapped.

"Calm down, Inuyasha, you've startled her!" A female's voice sounded close by. I get hurled into the air with the hand still clamped on my tail. The person's feet landed and it made me dizzy when the figure held me up to his face for inspection.

His eyes were gold and the pupils stared at me intensely. He had long silver hair with bangs that nearly hid his golden eyes. He glanced at the woman next to him, who startles me with her beauty. She had long black hair, though it is not as long as the demon's, and it shines blue in the bright sunlight. She had dark brown eyes like Sango's, and for a moment, I almost thought I've seen her somewhere. She and Sango seem identical, but I can see differences.

Every villager, now that I've noticed, has donned a kimono, and Inuyasha's shirt and pants are both red. Kagome's kimono has a white shirt and burgundy pants-

His voice grabbed my attention. "Relax, Kagome. I had to scare her to make her stop running." He's holding me in his hand by my neck, and I struggled to breathe.

"Hold her more gently. If she were Shippo, she'd be blue." Kagome said to him, looking at me closely. Her brown eyes stare at my face.

Inuyasha scowled for a moment and releases his grip. "I can hardly kick him around anymore." Nostalgia filled his gaze.

I struggled out of his grip and landed hard on my back paws. My eyes swell with pain, and then I'm struggling to walk away again. I can feel their eyes watching me as I limped away.

"Kagome-"

"Inuyasha, she's hurt." Were they trying to get me again? I limped faster and then stumbled over my paws and land hard on my belly. Inuyasha and Kagome crouch down to watch me more closely.

I heard Kagome sigh in sadness as I struggled back up to my paws. I was tired and didn't feel like running. Mewing, I stood facing the pair, still prepared to run, my body shaking from the strain of trying to stand on only three paws.

Kagome is staring at me and nudged Inuyasha. He looked me up and down and attempted to lure me to him by whistling. I flattened my ears for a moment at his actions but scooted to him.

Kagome edged close to me and cupped her hands, holding them out to me. I sniffed and bunched my muscles to jump when my leg sends a sharp jolt of pain throughout my body. I half-heartedly attempt and Kagome bends down to catch me.

"She couldn't make a small jump. You were only inches away." Inuyasha's eyes are on me when they start walking past the huts and the stream. "What do you think happened to her?"

I stared ahead, trying to memorize the layout of the village. What if I ever needed to run again? I wouldn't want to leave the village to the demons if they found me once more. I decided that I'd try to lure them away.

Kagome shrugged and then murmured to him, "She's covered in scratches, and obviously her paw is hurt. I can only think of a battle."

"We've got her, Sango." Kagome said as Inuyasha ducked inside a rather large hut. The scent of more humans greeted me and I see tiny girl twins sitting next to Sango. A monk with black hair is stoking the tiny fire in the middle of the hut; the fire is in a square in the floor where there isn't any wood, and burns brightly. One little boy is playing with Kirara's tail, and a fox demon with orange brownish hair that might be my age in human years, is watching him.

Kirara and the fox demon looked up at me. The fox demon's deep blue eyes light up. "It's a demon like Kirara." He peered at me to get a closer look.

"Let me see her." The monk said. I don't like this. Everyone is staring at me like I was a walking fish.

Kagome handed me to her gently, cautioning him. "She's hurt, Miroku."

He rubbed my ears, soothing me. Can he feel me trembling? "I see. Malnutrition and exhaustion."

Sango smiled. "Good thing you caught extra fish for us today, Inuyasha."

"Where's Kohaku?" The fox demon asked.

"He's fetching water with Kaede, Shippo. By the way, can you get her for the Nekomata we have here? She's hurt." Miroku began messing with my closed eyes. "Open your eyes, little one."

I shut them tighter and mewed in complaint. I opened them a slit to see Kirara mew in response from where she stood, staring up at me from Miroku's ankles.

Shippo nodded. "Okay, Miroku." He stroked my ears for a moment when he passed me.

Shippo ducked outside the hut, and my eyes strayed to where he had been. The hut's wooden walls glowed with the fire's bright light, and I want to be put down again. Why does everyone have to hold me?

Kagome sat down near Sango, and smiled at the little boy. "Maybe she's shy."

I tried to squirm from Miroku's grip, but have no luck. Miroku, guessing my hidden plea, set me down on the floor next to Kirara, and I glanced at her. She mewed, "Hungry?"

I forgot that I could understand other demons of my kind, though I'm only half. I hadn't been around another Nekomata in years. It's been years, or maybe decades -time flew by so fast- since my mother was killed and village was robbed.

I ignored her, not trying to be mean, but to find my bearings. All the other humans and demons who have seen me have tried to capture me. Here I was, surrounded by humans, demons, and half-demons, yet they're trying to help me? Feed me? It didn't make sense.

I mewed in apology, though it's still not a response, and padded quietly to the fire. Miroku had sat down next to Sango on her left and stroked her shoulder. Everyone was watching Kirara and I.

Shippo came back in the room with an older human who had the same dark hair as Sango's. The human glanced at me and blinked. "Well, who is this?"

He reached for me with outstretched arms but I backed away, nearly falling backwards when I put pressure on my hurt paw. Sango looked at Miroku and then Kohaku. "She's antsy."

Kagome looked around, and I could see sleeping mats in the hut. Kagome grabbed a tiny thing from the corner of the hut that reminded me of a basket and she took out something.

"Here, girl." She cooed to me.

I looked at Kohaku and then Kagome. I backed away to the corner of the room, my fur beginning to bristle. This was it. I was going to have to fight my way out of the hut now.

"Kagome, I found Kaede." Inuyasha walked back inside. The elderly woman from before looked at me and smiled.

"That's the one I saw today." She said, a rasp in her voice. She moved around Miroku to reach for me. I couldn't back away any farther so I growled.

"Come on, Nekomata." Kaede said. Everyone was watching us. Even the little three babies who were huddled on Sango's lap.

I sat down at once, my hurt paw throbbing harder than ever. I didn't fight when she scooped me up in her arms and gently handed me to Kagome. Kagome looked at the scratches that decorated my fur. I didn't know I still had some of those.

Kagome's voice was soothing as she talked to me. She held up a long object with a strange tip on the top and said, "Sorry. This might sting."

I didn't know what she meant until she pushed the tip and moisturized air landed on some of the scratches. I winced and stiffened to keep my claws in. She sprayed again, parting my fur in places to spray more.

By the fifth time, I was struggling to get out of her lap. "All done." She said, and I relaxed. At least I hadn't clawed her. The sting was already fading.

Kohaku smiled. "She took it like a champ, Kagome."

"Sure did." Shippo chirped, his blue eyes never leaving me. I almost felt embarrassed when I realized that everyone was watching us still.

Kagome asked Miroku to find a small twig to hold my paw straight. She knew my leg wasn't broken, but it was sprained. She bound my leg with white bandages and tucked the twig between my leg and the bandages.

She let me get to my feet and I hobbled around the hut, avoiding the fire. I tried to jump forward and landed awkwardly. The twig was already annoying me. I was born to jump into trees and catch fish. How would I hunt now if I couldn't jump on top of a fish when I saw one in the water?

Kirara walked over to me and steadied my shakes. It was hard standing. My back right paw was partly lifted off the ground with the twig, and now I'd be forced to find balance on three paws. She mewed, "Do you want me to take it out when she's asleep?"

I shook my head. "Why did the air hurt me?"

"It's supposed to help." Kirara's eyes were bright.

"It stung." I was glad to find another Nekomata.

Sango exchanged a confused glance with Shippo. "Maybe they know each other?"

Kaede looked at Inuyasha, who was poking sticks with fish next to the fire. "I hope these cook fast."

"How many are there?" Kohaku mused.

"Eight."

Shippo began counting heads. 'Kaede, are you staying?" The elderly woman shook her head. Shippo began counting again.

"I think we need one more." Kagome got up to leave the hut. I wanted to follow her, and felt envious when Kirara trotted next to Kagome outside. I hobbled forward to see where they were going.

Miroku soothed my curiosity. "They're going to get more fish, Nekomata."

"Nekomata is so plain." Kohaku muttered to Shippo. Inuyasha nodded in agreement but I saw him rolling his eyes.

"What do you think we should call her?" Sango asked, beginning to braid one of the twins' hair. "Nekomata is a bit too general."

"We should call her Indigo." Shippo suggested proudly.

My ears perked up at the name. My father had called me that once. I never really understood why. I thought he called me that because of my eyes.

"That's a pretty name, Shippo." Kagome walked back in and quickly poked the stick next to the other ones.

The smell of cooking fish made me dizzy. Why had I let myself get so hungry? I was going to need to hunt, somehow. Some way. I trotted stiffly to the hut and looked around, sniffing.

The sky was bright with a sunset and I could see the dark blue water of the stream. It was hard for me to walk, much less scoot. But I'd have to do either to get to the stream. I would have to settle on berries. My stomach growled in hunger and I whimpered for a moment.

I was about to take a step toward the stream, but a voice stopped me.

"Indigo, come back inside." It was Shippo, and he was already using his name for me. I looked back at him and he smiled tentatively at me. He was taller than I thought, and since I was sixteen human years, he had to be too.

"You'll get a fish too, you must be hungry." Shippo stooped down to my level and stroked the fur on my ears. His eyes were kind, and the sunset made them glow. "Come back inside."

I stayed where I was, only because I didn't want to struggle with walking. Shippo picked me up by my tiny furred underarms and walked back in the hut. He set me down next to Kaede and Inuyasha, before sitting between me and Inuyasha.

Kagome began handing out the fish. I looked at Kirara's and wondered how I was supposed to eat it. It was on a _stick_.

Kaede blessed the food by muttering words under her breath. I saw everyone hang their head, and hung my own. Shippo gasped silently when he saw me do it, but otherwise, everything was normal.

Kagome and Sango began eating, and Inuyasha tore into his large fish. I nibbled at my fish, trying my hardest not to whimper because a cooked fish was right in front of me and I couldn't figure out how to eat it off the stick. Kirara watched me struggling and grabbed her stick and yanked it from its place near the fire. She walked over to me and put hers down.

She grabbed my fish by the stick and yanked it from the ground as well. She put it down, and then held it horizontally to me. I managed to bit off a bit of fish. "Thank you," I mewed to her.

Kirara nodded, and held the stick for me like that while I ate. When I finished, she dropped my empty stick and nudged hers to me. I grabbed it and held it the way she did. She ate slower than me, and I was impressed with her patience.

Inuyasha and Miroku had been watching- well, the entire hut had been watching us again- and Miroku smiled. "That's so cute," Kagome was grinning from where she was.

When Kaede left after not eating like she had said she would, Sango fed –who I could assume now were her children- by tearing the fish in little strips. The girls seemed to be okay with it, while the boy nearly ate a big chunk of fish that had been by her side, waiting to be torn up.

Miroku rubbed Sango's back while she fed their children, and I could feel a smile forming on my face. For a while afterwards, they all chatted with each other. Sometimes I heard the words, 'Nekomata', 'Kirara', and 'Indigo' but I tried to ignore them. When I finally gained a sense of balance, I hobbled to a corner of the hut and curled up the best I could. Kirara looked at me, and bid me 'goodnight'.


End file.
